On pro basketball.

Present Bulls have no future

February 14, 2003|By Sam Smith.

Portland Trail Blazers fans must be smiling. Someone else can feel more embarrassed about their team for a change. Yes, there's trouble once again with that rollicking, traveling tragicomedy known as the Bulls. And they're not even winning.

Jalen Rose and Tyson Chandler strolling in almost an hour after an early practice began Thursday wasn't really much. Both had had big games the night before, probably the best for each this season. It's New York City. They're staying at the Ritz, though we doubt for long. Late night, early wake-up. Hey, it happens.

But the problem is, something always seems to happen with this group, making it hard to feel an attachment, to feel proud.

This is your Bulls team of the future?

So let's see, this week Chandler missed practice Monday when he missed his flight back from Atlanta, Jamal Crawford was benched for Jay Williams and moaned again how it wasn't fair, and Crawford's agent got involved again to say Crawford had outplayed Williams. Perhaps, but Crawford isn't shooting 40 percent either. Neither would play if someone else could.

Added to the mix is that Crawford and Williams got into a little dust-up at practice Monday. Not that anyone was fooled into thinking this was some sort of friendly competition in which hard-working teammates drove one another to excellence. It was more like a 2nd-grader sticking out his leg when another kid walked down the row.

This season-long drama has been full of whining and strife.

- Eddy Curry has complained about not playing enough.

- So has Eddie Robinson, who also said the Bulls should trade him.

- Chandler has complained about sitting out fourth quarters and not playing enough.

- Dalibor Bagaric has complained about not playing as much as Curry and Chandler.

- Donyell Marshall had to be restrained from going after assistant coach Bill Berry.

- Robinson said when Rick Brunson played that he finally had someone who could find him on the fast break.

- Crawford was thrown out of practice in training camp and cursed at coach Bill Cartwright when taken out of a December game.

- Trenton Hassell was sent home from a game.

- Marcus Fizer was arrested.

Sometimes you long for the stable times of Charles Oakley and Ron Artest.

Just what the heck is going on there?

There's no question Cartwright has been handed an impossible task. He is being asked to win and to develop young players. It perhaps suggests why he uncharacteristically has expressed frustration so vocally this season in a situation not unlike coach Nate McMillan's in Seattle.

McMillan, regarded as one of the most promising young coaches in the NBA, is said to be contemplating resigning to pursue the Charlotte expansion job in 2004-05. That's because management said it is rebuilding but also wants to win to satisfy paying customers.

Likewise with the Bulls. Management says it wants to win 30 games this season and be a playoff team next season. Winning 30 games would require playing at a higher winning percentage than the team did before the All-Star break. Yet general manager Jerry Krause wants Cartwright to expand the playing time of Curry, Chandler and Williams to determine what the team has for next season.

It's the kind of mandate that drove Tim Floyd to resign and perhaps could doom Cartwright.

But the bigger question may be just what kind of team is being built. There seems to be no plan.

Krause has endorsed the triangle offense, which is the team's foundation, for a long time. It is known as an offense geared for jump shooters. But the Bulls don't have a pure jump shooter, other than Fred Hoiberg, who doesn't play much anymore. They are one of the poorest shooting teams in the league. Back in the 1980s, when the championship team was being built, there was a clear emphasis on defense. Yet the players acquired for this team seem to have no clear identity. Nor do they seem to fit with one another.

Curry is an offensive post player. Chandler is defense-minded. Williams is a small, slashing guard. Crawford is a scoring perimeter player. Robinson is an open-court runner and finisher. It is baffling to figure out how it all fits together.

Rose remains the team's only pure scorer. But he needs to be complemented by another veteran scorer. The answer is not to trade him but to support him.

At least with Rose, the Bulls are competitive offensively. The big kids just haven't stepped forward to become the defensive stoppers on the back line they were expected to be. The point guard competition continues to wear out both players and the team, a result of Krause's stubbornness.

The problem is Krause's plan, the big free-agent and draft bonanza of 2000, was a failure. The team used six draft picks without getting one starter out of them, and it couldn't attract a major free agent. It has been nothing but patching holes on a sinking ship since then. The result has been leaks spurting everywhere, a captain shouting orders and a rudderless vessel.

No wonder Rose and Chandler stayed in bed. Maybe they're just tired of it too.